Apr 20, 2011

Hourglass Visionaire Eye Shadow Duo - Dune

one of the other items i ordered from Hourglass at Ludwig Beck Munich (5 Höfe) is the Visionaire Eye Shadow Duo in Dune.
the palette costs 28€ at Ludwig Beck, where you have to call the counter (free delivery germany-wide with orders 50€+, otherwise 4.50€) but you can also order it online from the UK at zuneta.com (~33€, free delivery with orders 65£+).
it's a sleek and well made glossy dark brown compact which includes a mirror and a very nice little brush with soft but dense natural hair. you can twist and fold the lid in every way, it's the special feature of the packaging, but i don't find it that neccessary. it has a magnetic closure.
the product contains 2 pans with 3g of eyeshadow each, so you get 6g of product, which is for example 5 times the total amount of a Chanel quad (!!!). the big amount comes very handy to people who like to have products to use on a daily basis.
the quality of the eyeshadows is really outstanding. amazingly smooth and almost creamy, they apply and blend out & together beautifully. all of their colours are very pigmented and have a depth i can't compare with any other piece of my big stash. Dune consists of a shimmery pale gold which shimmers gold and white and doesn't look frosty. it can be too yellow for my skin tone, i have to be careful to combine it the right way. the other colour is a very intense military green which base shade has a satin finish but also contains gold and green sparkles. i can also detect some pink glimmer specks. it's great as an eyeliner or a dark crease/outer corner shade. a very easy to wear green which i can imagine will also look great as a outer corner colour combined with medium teals/aqua blues. blended out the shimmer is still visible, but less.
both apply intensely, i only need to dab my brush into the pan once or twice to do my whole lid. i don't get fall outs with these.the shades last on me very well, with a good base they don't crease or fade on me even after 12h+.
highly recommended! you should at least try one of these, they are really worth the money and i can't imagine anyone wouldn't like them.

Hourglass Dune in sunlight

Hourglass Dune in sunlight

Hourglass Dune in sunlight

this is how it looks applied: i created a softer and a more intense look.

the gold shade all over the lid and on the lower lashline, the green as a thick liner

the gold on the inner half of the lid and lower lashline, the dark green in the outer corner

i dont have any comparable shades to this duo, MAC Retrospeck is more shimmery and lighter than the gold shade in Dune, the light shade of NARS Tzarine is also lighter. for the darker shades, i only have some dark eyeshadows that work the same way (smooth satin finish with infused sparkles), but are different in colour.

5 comments:

Looks awesome. Though very warm I think this would actually be my duo of choice. The price is actually pretty great, expensive but still affordable for one item, and awesome for the amount of product I think!

Do you know if it has to be 50€+ just on Hourglass or if it can be spent on other brands too?If I'm right that the general number of In den 5 Höfen on the frontpage is the number to be called, I suppose it should go for all brands..I've only read about ordering MAC at Ludwig Beck, how do they handle the adress & payment at the phone, do you get any additional e-mails about it?

hi 2espresso: you can order every brand that is available at the 5höfe store. sadly that doesn't include common luxury brands or mac and also not laura mercier. the 5höfe store is more a "niche-brands"-store. it's the other beck that has all those more widely known brands. call the 5 höfe-number and ask for the hourglass counter SA. i paid by credit card on the phone and didn't get an additional email-confirmation. maybe you can find something else if you look into my hourglass overview i wrote in my beginnings ;)

Is it a little mean to say, that I'm not impressed? The eyeshadow looks nice, yes - but they do not seem that spectacular. I love your style and believe it when you say that those eyeshadows are so workable. But still - is the difference in quality really that big (i.e. compared to NARS)? Maybe the fotos aren't that good, but I have seen looks by you which where more vibrant/beautiful regarding the eyeshadow (I am not referring to the technique).

@martha: it's totally okay! i also find the combination not very exciting, but the looks i did were on late-afternoon-three-times-made-up eyes so they don't glare either...i find the quality really amazing. much more pigmented and softer/smoother than nars. better than all the mac eyeshadows i tried, even a smidgen better than their starflash finish. although nars is a really good brand, the eyeshadows are very easy to use, have good pigmentation, blend out and together beautifully, i find them drier and more flaky than hourglass.